Action-Research on Algorithmic Policing
In June, during the European Workshops in International Studies, I presented of a draft paper regarding ongoing action-research concerning algorithmic urban policing, analyzing methodological and political challenges of fieldwork on AI-powered surveillance systems.
Abstract
This paper examines methodological and epistemological issues of action-research on algorithmic policing, based on empirical investigation of AI-powered surveillance system experiments in the French urban context. It questions conditions for producing critical knowledge about technical objects surrounded by opacity and protected by both commercial and security secrecy.
The analysis highlights constitutive tensions of any action-research approach in this domain: between scientific requirements and activist engagement, between field access and critical independence, between research temporalities and political action urgency. It also shows how systemic opacity characterizing these technologies’ deployment challenges traditional democratic control mechanisms and necessitates new forms of investigation.
The chapter defends an approach combining technical expertise, legal analysis and citizen mobilization to document and contest these algorithmic surveillance systems. It emphasizes the importance of alliances between researchers, rights defense organizations and affected communities in producing counter-knowledge and resistance strategies.
Full reference: Tréguer Félix, 2021, “Doing Action-Research on Algorithmic Urban Policing: IA-Powered Surveillance, Elusive Democratic Oversight”, in Artificial intelligence and the control of ‘algocracy’ in security issues.